You turn to us for voices you won't hear anywhere else.

Sign up for Democracy Now!'s Daily Digest to get our latest headlines and stories delivered to your inbox every day.

Trump Praised Duterte for His Bloody War on Drugs in April Phone Call

HeadlineMay 24, 2017

A new transcript obtained by The Intercept reveals that President Trump praised Duterte for his bloody war on drugs during their phone call in April, saying he’s doing an “unbelievable job on the drug problem.” More than 7,000 people have been extrajudicially killed by police or vigilantes since Duterte launched his so-called war on drugs last June. Human rights groups have accused Duterte of using the campaign as cover to kill activists and community leaders. During the call, Trump also boasted to Duterte that the U.S. has two nuclear submarines off the coast of North Korea—though Trump added, “Not that we want to use them at all.”

The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.

Non-commercial news needs your support

We rely on contributions from our viewers and listeners to do our work.
Please do your part today.
Make a donation
Top